EUROVISION 2016: IVAN will represent Belarus with “Help You Fly”

Belarus has finally chosen its representative. Ten acts competed in tonight’s national final, but there was only one winner — IVAN with “Help You Fly” who was selected as the winner with 23,167 votes. This year’s result was decided by 100% televote.

Listen to the song below:

Belarus has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 12 times, debuting in 2004. The country entered the contest in the same year that semi-finals began to be used to determine who would compete in the final. Belarus has so far managed to qualify for the final four times: in 2007 with Dmitry Koldun and the highest place in the competition, in 2010 with band 3+2 (24th place), in 2013 with Alyona Lanskaya (16th place) and in 2014 with Teo (16th place). ‘Work your magic’ managed to get the 6th place.

After the 2009 edition, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, said that it was necessary to completely replace the current working team behind Belarus’ Eurovision entry. Lukashenko pointed out his frustrations over divisions within the team.

Alexander Rybak, the winner of the 2009 contest representing Norway, expressed an interest in composing an entry for his birth country Belarus. An attempt to compose a song for Belarus materialized in 2015, when Rybak composed a song called Accent, sung by a group of girls created by himself and called Milki. Despite being the favourite to win the national final that year, it only got a 4th place.